Vastly Outnumbered
by HecateA
Summary: How was Oliver supposed to know that he was putting together more than a Quidditch team when he picked Alicia, Angelina, and Katie as his Chasers? They were, after all, supposed to be making his life easier. Oneshot.


**Author's Note: **Enjooooy!

**Disclaimer: **The following characters belong to J.K. Rowling, and this story derives from her original works, storylines, and world. Please do not sue me, I can barely pay tuition.

**Warnings: **Sexual content towards the end

* * *

**Stacked with:** MC4A; Sky's the Limit; Flouting Regulations; Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

**Individual Challenge(s): **Family Game Night; Rainbow Focus; Gryffindor MC (x4); Seeds; Golden Times; Old Shoes; Trop It Up A (They were roommates); Themes and Things A (Secrets); Themes and Things B (Surprise); Trope It Up C (Secret Relationship); The 3rd Rule; Lovely Triangle; Ethnic & Present; Rian-Russo Inversion (Y); Flags and Ribbons (Y); Letter of the Day; Short Jog; Yellow Ribbon; Yellow Ribbon Redux

**Representation(s): **Chaser's Delight; asexual Oliver Wood

**Bonus challenge(s): **Brooms Only; Clio's Conclusion; Three's Company; Second Verse (Not a Lamp); Chorus (Unicorn)

**Tertiary bonus challenge: **Satisfaction

**Word Count: **2092

* * *

_**Shipping War **_

**Ship (Team): **Angelina Johnson/Alicia Spinnet/Katie Bell

**List (Prompt): **Spring Medium 1 (Caught in the Act)

* * *

**Vastly Outnumbered**

_"Okay, men," he said._

_"And women," said Chaser Angelina Johnson._

_"And women," Wood agreed. "This is it."_

-_The Philosopher's Stone, _J.K. Rowling

They were the three best Chasers in the school. Every single flight plan and maneuver that Oliver had drafted in the last year had revolved around their speed, their coordination, their teamwork, their quick-thinking, and the way they could read each other and communicate on the pitch while soaring hundreds of meters in the air.

They were also driving him absolutely mad.

To be fair, this was entirely Oliver's fault. He distinctly remembered, on his first year as captain, walking out of McGonagall's office once she'd signed off on the team, clutching the parchment to his chest. He'd marched back to the Gryffindor Common Room to pin up the list with a spring and determination in his step. Once he did, there was a rush of people who ran to the board. Oliver did his best to look invisible and avoid any unhappy reactions.

Angelina and Alicia cluttered around the board at the same time. Katie, who was younger and smaller and hadn't quite made her way through the crowd, but was on her way. He loved seeing the looks on their faces when they saw their names. Alicia looked pleasantly surprised, her friends clapped her on the back. Angelina looked happy, but she'd obviously known that she'd make it. She'd _killed _it, at try-outs. Oliver had gotten curious once he'd seen her fly and hopped into the drills himself, and she'd managed to score against him.

"Angelina," he called. She turned towards him and grinned. "Alicia. And Katie…"

Katie had just seen her name and let out an excited squeal, hands pushed against her mouth.

"Hey," Oliver said, waving the three girls over and pulling them aside. "I don't know if you've all met before—Katie, Angelina, Alicia. Welcome to the team."

"Hi," Alicia said. She looked at Katie and smiled. "I have that same dress in green."

"Really?" Katie smiled. She ran her hands down the skirt self-consciously. The dress had capped sleeves and buttons down the front, from neckline to skirt. "I wore red for luck today, because I was really, really hoping to get on the team. But green's my favourite colour."

"For the Holyhead Harpies, right?" Angelina said.

"Yeah," Katie and Alicia both said at once, smiling.

Oliver had had a good feeling then, that the three of them would work well together. That he'd really put together an effective team.

He hadn't expected them to ruin his life quite so much. See, the issue with Chasers is that there were three of them. _Three. _

But at the rate that they were scoring, he'd take the migraine.

* * *

Oliver was interrupted for the third time this practise.

"Be nice to him," Katie chided, bumping her hip into Angelina's. She was still smiling far too widely to actually feel bad.

"Thank you, Katie," he said begrudgingly. "But yes; be nice to Oliver. We have a very loaded Quidditch practise and that git Marcus Flint has booked the pitch right after us, so we have to get through these drills quickly..."

"So quick that you'll be skipping the inspirational speech?" Alicia asked.

"Don't interrupt Ali, he was already doing it," Angelina said, turning to her with a grin. "Didn't you feel something warm and fuzzy bubbling in your chest?"

"My supper was a bit on the odd side, I thought it was making a reappearance," Alicia answered.

Katie burst out laughing. There went his one ally in the trio, and surely the twins would go off now that bodily-function related humour had been introduced to the conversation. Thank goodness he still instilled some sense of respect in Harry.

But when Oliver turned to his Seeker, he was smiling along.

Oh no.

* * *

Oliver found Katie in Hogsmeade. She was wearing a green dress with buttons running down the front of it, sitting at a table in The Three Broomsticks, waiting.

"Hey!" he said. "You're not supposed to be here, you're in second year…"

"Angelina and Alicia snuck me out," she admitted.

"Well don't look so nervous, I'm not going to _tell," _Oliver chided. "But this is a really, really reckless thing to do. We have a game in a week, we can't afford to lose you if you get in detention and Snape's one of the accompanying professors today—you know he's only _looking _for an excuse…"

"Oh, relax, Wood," he heard. He turned around and there was Angelina, wearing the same dress but in red.

"All three of you could—"

"Yeah, all three of us," Angelina said. "Now stop shouting before you get all three of us—a near majority of your players, might I say—in trouble."

Oliver shut up.

* * *

"Hey," Oliver said, cornering the girls at breakfast. "Cedric Diggory's out sick and cancelled Hufflepuff's Quidditch practise tonight—I managed to book the pitch after dinner tonight for an extra practise before the game…"

Katie's eyes popped. She turned to Alicia nervously.

"I've got plans," Alicia said. "Sorry, Wood."

"It'd be ideal if you were there, but we can do without you," Oliver said. "Johnson?"

"I've got plans too," Angelina said.

"With Spinnet?" Oliver frowned.

"No," Katie squeaked nervously. He turned to her.

"Well," Oliver said. "We won't be able to get through any Chaser drills with two of them out, but we could really use you for this new Beater drill I've been thinking of for the twins…"

"I also have plans," Katie said. "But different plans. Different from Angelina's different plans, which are different from Alicia."

"Merlin, this is painful," Angelina whispered under her breath.

"I'm sorry," Katie said.

* * *

They were rummaging through the piles of clothes they'd left behind in the changing room.

"Ange, I'm so sore," Alicia said, holding her hip. "I don't want to wear pants, can I just wear your dress?"

"What did you come in wearing?" Angelina asked.

"Jeans and that grey sweater."

"The jeans with the disgusting stain on the leg? Gross."

"It's _not _disgusting, we know what it is," Alicia said defensively.

"That's my dress anyways," Katie said, balling up the red dress and throwing it to Alicia. "So I give you permission."

"Well, now that that's settled: girls dibs shower first," Angelina said.

"Whoa, whoa…" Oliver said.

"The twins are taking forever and a day to clean up out there," Alicia said. "You and Harry are outnumbered. Girls shower first."

Oliver turned back to Harry, who just shrugged and sat down on the bench to wait.

It must be nice to not even have the _instinct _to fight the girls on anything. Harry lived a much simpler life.

* * *

"Alright," Oliver said, sitting down in the changing room with them. "Some good news today; the school board's given each Quidditch team a small budget. McGonagall said we should put it up to a vote, to see what Gryffindor should do with ours. I was thinking we should invest in some new training equipment—Puddlemere United's been using these giant hoops that float to practise their agility, and given that we've got a new Seeker…"

"We should get new Chaser robes," Alicia said, putting her hand up as she spoke. "The three of us have been wearing the same robes for years. We've been patching them up, but they look really bad. That Ravenclaw Chaser, Nicole Adams, said something snarky to us about it last game."

"Chasers' robes would only benefit you three," Oliver said. "The training hoops…"

"We could cast _Alohomora _on regular hoops," said Harry, with the innocence and eagerness that only a first year could have.

"Yes, exactly," Angelina said. "Thank you, Harry. Whereas no spell can fix our garbage robes."

"That's right, we've tried them all," Alicia said. "How is it that I've been at this school four years, playing three years, I've scored 37 goals, flown on two different brooms, but only had one set of Quidditch robes?"

"To be fair," Katie spoke up. "I've only been here…"

"Katie, shh," Angelina said, putting a hand on her knee. "We're trying something here."

"This isn't fair," Fred spoke up. "There's three of them. They can outvote us so easily, I don't want new Chasers' robes. What good does that do me?"

"Well, vote for the hoops," Oliver said.

"No, that's not particularly appealing either—Beaters don't need this thing 'agility' you speak of," George said. "What about new bats?"

"We got new bats last year through Hooch," Oliver said. "McGonagall would never allow it."

"He's only saying that so that you vote for his hoops," Alicia said.

"No, she just—" Oliver started, exasperated.

"I think we could really drum up more team spirit with a mascot," Fred said. "Say, an inflatable lion—"

"Wonderful!" Alicia said gleefully.

"That's inspired, Weasley."

"Maybe it could roar, too," Katie suggested.

"Muggles have mascots like that," Harry nodded.

"That is the only thing McGonagall would allow _less _than new bats," Oliver sighed.

"I would love for the opportunity to _explain _to McGonagall why this one-time investment…"

"Absolutely not," Oliver said. "Come on guys, get it together. Can't you see that they're just trying to divide us so that they can outvote us on robes?"

"I won't budge on the inflatable lion," Fred said, crossing his arms.

Oliver shot the girls a death glare. They smiled back at him.

* * *

On the best of days, they scared Oliver a little bit. Today, Alicia was wearing a leather jacket over her buttoned red dress and Angelina wore a tank top that left her strong, muscular arms bare. Given that he'd been cornered in the common room by those two, Oliver felt that it was only fair that he was a little intimidated.

"We told you not to book the pitch today."

"The pitch is booked for Gryffindor every Saturday," Oliver said. "This is how it always is."

"Yeah, but the Holyhead Harpies are playing today," Angelina said, shaking her head. "We're listening to the game on the radio."

"No you're not," Oliver said. "We have a practise."

"Maybe you do," Alicia said. "If so, have fun. But we're listening to the game."

"Listen—"

"No _you _listen," Angelina said, putting a hand on her hip. "It's Katie's birthday today, and the Harpies and the Wanderers are tied for that last championship spot. It's do or die. Either the Harpies make it to the championships _on Katie's birthday, _or they don't."

"Also on her birthday," Alicia said, crossing her arms over her chest. "We have to be ready for either outcome."

"That's right," Angelina said. "So we _will_ be listening to this game."

"Hey," Katie said, drifting over to them. She wore a green dress that buttoned down the front, and had a Holyhead Harpies flag draped around her shoulders for luck. "What are you guys talking about?"

Alicia and Angelina instantly pivoted to Oliver, drilling hard, hard looks into him.

"The game," Oliver said.

Behind Katie, Angelina arched an eyebrow and made a hand motion as if to say _go on. _

"Happy birthday by the way," he said.

Angelina and Alicia both nodded.

* * *

He was earlier than he usually was, getting to the changing rooms—which was saying something because Oliver was always early on game days. He had a ritual that was unbreakable, and today's game against Ravenclaw was no joke.

He opened the door to the changing room, running through the list of things to do in his head—which was maybe why he didn't notice that the lights were already on until the door was open and… well…

Katie was on the bench in the middle of the room, leaning against Alicia who had her lips against her neck and her hands were… well, wandering more than the Wigtown Wanderers. And that was nothing compared to Angelina, whose hands had found their way under…

In that moment it hit Oliver like a ton of bricks. Something that should have hit him a thousand times, like every other warning sign in the world. The green dress Katie was wearing was Alicia's. Katie's was red. Angelina didn't even have one.

"Holy fuck," Oliver said, hand clutching the doorknob in shock.

Angelina looked to the two other girls quickly, before darting up, clutching her unbuttoned blouse shut, arms crossed against her chest. Alicia helped Katie straighten herself up, the flush on her face becoming an embarrassed, flaming crimson.

"Oliver, look," Angelina said, chewing her lip. "I—we can explain…"

"Yeah," Oliver said. "You could have _told me _just how fucking outnumbered I've been all this time! I would have given up _ages _ago!"


End file.
